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Seeing the World Around You Through Your Phone

I have faith that once the novelty of the coolest new smartphone feature wears off, I will again walk the streets with my eyes open to the world around me, not to the screen of a smartphone.

Until then, forget it.

The best new thing to hit smartphones is augmented reality. These apps, like Goggles (free, for Android phones) and Layar (free, for Android and Apple devices), are like space-age glasses. Point your smartphone in any direction and look through the camera viewer, and it will reveal information about what it sees.

Want to know the artist responsible for the print hanging in that restaurant? The name of the building with the enormous gargoyles? The last selling price of that house up ahead?

Pull out your smartphone and press a button.

There are limits, of course, even for apps like Goggles and Layar, which are two of the more promising entrants in this category. Neither will recognize your plate of beef stroganoff and tell you what’s in it, nor will they tell you the name and number of that beautiful stranger in the corner.

But those limits are nothing compared to the jolt you’ll get when they work.

I opened Google’s Goggles on a MyTouch 3G Slide, from T-Mobile, and pointed it at a reproduction of a vintage poster I’ve had hanging in my living room for years. The poster is in French. The app snapped the poster’s photo and I watched it quickly scan the text and image.

A moment later the app offered a translation of the text and links where I could find the poster online.

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A photograph of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris as taken by the Goggles app

While in New Haven, Conn., last week, I pointed the app at the Yale Repertory Theater. Goggles scanned the sign and offered me a Wikipedia page on it, as well as a link to the theater’s Web site where I could find out more about performances. In cities like New York, Paris or San Francisco, it can recognize landmarks that have been extensively photographed.

Goggles tends to perform better when pointed at text, bar codes, labels and other inanimate objects that get a fair amount of attention on the Web.

Jason Freidenfelds, a Google spokesman, said Goggles was especially useful when traveling, and seeking information on a local landmark — say, a Venetian cathedral — without having to pore through a guidebook. (You’ll definitely want a foreign SIM card if you plan to try this data-munching trick.)

One of the limitations of the app is that the translation feature is often unreliable. I scanned a page of Pablo Neruda’s “The Queen,” written in Neruda’s native Spanish and published in a book I’d found with an English translation. The book translated one line as “There are lovelier than you, lovelier,” while Goggles rendered it as: “There are more beautiful than you, is’ beautiful.”

Still, not terrible.

I plan to open the app frequently in stores, when I spy my children with a particular book or toy that may make a good holiday gift. (Goggles keeps a record of your searches, if you wish.)

Unless you’re patient, you’ll want to use Goggles on a powerful phone, like a Droid X or a Nexus One. (Slightly cheaper Android phones like the HTC Desire, or the less expensive Samsung phones, won’t be as fast.) Google says it hopes to release an iPhone version before the end of the year.

Layar, in the meantime, is equally slick, and in many ways even more useful than Goggles. When Goggles missed well-known landmarks and institutions in New Haven, for instance, I scored with Layar.

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some of the search results it produced after recognizing the image.

Here’s how it works: Opening the Layar app triggers your device’s camera. From there, you choose which “layer” to view. If you’re curious about real estate values, for instance, you can choose Trulia’s layer. The number of layers is growing fast, as companies discover that it’s a great marketing vehicle.

If you’re hungry, there are numerous restaurant-finding layers. From the icons on your screen, you can see which restaurant is closest, and you can hit a button and get more information and directions to the place if it’s not in sight.

I wasn’t hungry, though. I was curious about my surroundings, so I opened the Wikipedia layer and pointed it toward a building I’d long wondered about. Turns out, it was the Yale School of Architecture, and the Wikipedia page was just a starting point for more links and information.

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Layar will also function in the dark, since it works as much from your GPS position as from the image in front of you.

Layar is free, but not all layers are free. If you want to see where crimes have been reported in a particular city, for instance, the Spot Crime layer will cost you $2. The Walt Disney World and Disneyland layers, also for $2, help you navigate the company’s theme parks. Most of the layers are free, though.

The app is especially good for a smartphone user — as opposed to, say, an iPad owner — since you don’t need to stop, squint and type a search phrase into the device in order to see a result.

Typing, after all, is so last century — like looking at something other than a smartphone when you’re on a sidewalk.

Quick Calls

Android users can scan documents, convert them to PDFs and e-mail the documents with Document Scanner ($4). The file may also be stored on the phone for future use. ... Sega Genesis fans can now play Ecco the Dolphin ($3) and Space Harrier II ($1) on their iPhone and iPod touch. More classic Sega titles are coming this fall. ... Want to share your trip details with friends, or just track it for yourself? MapHook introduced a free iPhone app that makes it easy to drop virtual breadcrumbs, photos and notes along your path.

E-mail: phonesmart@nytimes.com

A version of this article appears in print on July 29, 2010, on Page B8 of the New York edition with the headline: Seeing the World Around You Through Your Phone. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe